Real time bidding is the process by which online content providers generate and provide submissions (or “bids”) for the right to populate what will be referred to herein as “application slots” with one or more digital components. An “application slot” may refer to an opportunity, facilitated by a distributor of digital components, for a third party to make digital components available to a user. A commonly-known example of an application slot is a spatial portion of a website, such as a banner portion, that may be selectively populated with digital components such as a graphical banner. Another example of an application slot is a time interval inserted between songs or videos of an online media streaming service. Various entities may generate and provide submissions for the right to populate application slots with their digital component(s). For example, entities may deploy (e.g., on a “demand side platform,” or “DSP”) so-called “digital component source processes” that automatically, without routine human intervention, generate and provide submissions for application slots solicited by so-called “digital component liaison processes,” in a process that is often referred to as “programmatic buying.” In a typical scenario, a digital component source process learns of an available application slot, e.g., from a digital component liaison process, when a user conducts activity such as loading a webpage that includes one or more application slots.
When notified of an available application slot, many digital component source processes may obtain one or more so-called “cookies” (small pieces of data that provide information about a user's online behavior) associated with the user for which the application slot is available. The digital component source processes may then perform various types of analysis using the cookie in order to determine an appropriate submission to populate the application slot with digital component(s). Suppose the cookie indicates the user has recently visited multiple websites relating to outdoor activities. A digital component source process with outdoor-related digital component(s) in its inventory may generate a relatively earnest submission (e.g., a relatively high bid) for that application slot because there is a relatively high likelihood the user will be interested in the digital component(s). A digital component source process with only irrelevant digital component(s) in its inventory may not provide a submission for the application slot at all, or may provide a relatively moderate submission.
Generating submissions to populate application slots based on cookies may have various shortcomings. For example, cookies may be spoofed or copied in order to cause entities to overspend on application slots that are not likely to be effective. Moreover, cookies are ephemeral in nature, and therefore may not be the best indicators for long term behavior of a user. Additionally, analyzing cookies and generating submissions based on the analysis may be relatively complex, and in some cases may require communication between multiple computing systems over one or more networks. It may be relatively difficult to update digital component source process databases to properly reflect winning submissions, click through rates, and so forth, when records are indexed by something that changes and/or expires as frequently as a cookie. And a solicited application slot may be won in a matter of milliseconds. Thus, the inherent latency associated with cookie analysis and calculation may put the digital component process at a competitive disadvantage.